To The Editor: When I contemplate the choices we have in  the upcoming provincial election, I must admit I get depressed. I think we need a new category on the voting ballot entitled None of the Above. The Liberals can be characterized as sneaky taxers with a conceited attitude. They are also given to flip and smart alec sophistry instead of candid, direct answers on issues. They obviously suffer from the corruption of power.

During an election, pundits and political parties tend to focus on spending promises. But the attention on spending makes it easy to forget that we’ve actually witnessed an incredible shrinking of government’s role in BC over the past 15 years. Unlike the strange mist that shrinks Scott Carey in the 1957 sci-fi classic, The Incredible Shrinking Man, the cause of BC’s shrinking public sector is not so mysterious.

Last week, I posted an editorial criticizing negative campaigning, and posed questions for our local candidates to answer -- without mentioning other candidates or other parties. Here are two of our local candidates' answers to the first set of four questions; the third candidate, Liberal Jim Postnikoff, was unfortunately unable to respond in time. Where possible, I have looked through the Liberal platform and attempted to find the Liberal approach on the topics of the questions, and inserted what I could find.

Selkirk Students Deserve Fair, Transparent and Democratic Referendum (On April 5) the Castlegar Source published a letter to the editor containing  misinformation about Selkirk College students' membership in the Canadian  Federation of Students. The letter leaves out some critical information that Selkirk students need to ...

Eileen Delehanty Pearkes has been researching and writing about the history and politics of water in the upper Columbia Basin since 2005.  Her book on the Columbia River Treaty, A River Captured, was released in 2016. Recently, her travelling exhibit on the Columbia River Treaty, curated for Touchstones Nelson, won a national...

Students at Selkirk College have become embroiled in a legal battle for the right to vote about their membership in a national student group, according to Selkirk College Students’ Union Director at-Large Santanna Hernandez. “Students submitted a valid petition for a referendum on membership in the Canadian Federation of...

What poses the greatest hazard to BC's endangered Southern Mountain Caribou -- habitat loss, wolves, or corporate donors?  Or are all three of those factors linked, and if so, how? This opinion piece is from DeSmog Canada.  Read and contemplate. The B.C. government is granting logging permits in critical caribou...

While it still may not look very much like it in some corners, winter is releasing its grip on the West Kootenay. Snowfalls turning to rain showers, songbirds returning to the trees, and creeks swollen with runoff signal the return of spring to the region. And, along with the seasonal turns, every four years also brings with...

Over the past month I have visited most of the RCMP detachments in South Okanagan-West Kootenay.  While the conversations covered some of the obvious law and order issues such as marijuana legalization, rising levels of property crime and staffing levels for highway patrol, I was surprised that one issue dominated most of my...

To The Editor: More funding might help our seniors if they are in a publicly owned facility. A few more staff and maybe an extra therapist. But history shows that more funding has not improved the quality of care in "for profit" or even "non-profit" facilities. The taxpayers shelled out more money in 2010 when the client rate...